When Kodak famously outsourced its entire IT function to IBM it
marked both the dawn of IT outsourcing as a business strategy and,
arguably, the beginning of Kodak’s end.
Since then, the breadth and prevalence of IT outsourcing has
grown. It is common now to have third parties providing IT
consulting, maintenance and support, and operations functions for
critical business systems. SaaS products have replaced many
substantial enterprise systems.
Outsourcing has become normal at all levels of the economy, but
failures can hit small to medium enterprises hardest.
More often than not those failures flow from unrealistic
expectations on both sides as to what can be achieved, what is
involved, and at what cost. And the delays and changes come at
cost.
